How to uninstall Qwen on Windows

千问 (Qianwen) is Alibaba's AI assistant, renamed from 通义 (Tongyi) in November 2025, and on Windows much of it still uses the old name: its data folder is %APPDATA%\tongyi, its settings key HKCU\Software\tongyi, its startup entry Tongyi. Your conversations belong to your Alibaba account, and removing the app does not delete the account, so there is little to back up on the PC itself; check in the app that what you need is in your history first. This guide covers 千问 installed per-user from the installer on qianwen.com. 千问

Quit 千问 first

Quit 千问, then check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) that no Qianwen.exe is still listed; it runs more than a dozen at once. It adds a startup entry that starts it hidden at sign-in, shown as Qianwen in Settings › Apps › Startup, so it can be running without a window. The uninstaller removed that entry in this test.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

Go to Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find 千问, and choose Uninstall. The uninstaller removes the program files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Qianwen, the Start Menu folder, the desktop shortcut and the startup entry. In this test it left both data folders, the downloaded updates, the settings key and the tongyi:// link registration.

Where the data lives

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process Qianwen -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Qianwen"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\tongyi"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Qianwen"
Test-Path HKCU:\Software\tongyi
Test-Path HKCU:\Software\Classes\tongyi

• No output from Get-Process only means this query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves the running state unknown. A listed process means it is still open, possibly without a window.
• The first Test-Path returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
• Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\tongyi" or "$env:APPDATA\Qianwen" returning True means that data folder is still there, which is expected unless you removed it yourself.
• Test-Path HKCU:\Software\tongyi returning True means the install record is still there; False means it is gone.
• The last Test-Path returning True means the link registration is still there; False means it is gone.

If you installed it with winget

Removing the Alibaba.Qianwen package with winget uninstall --id Alibaba.Qianwen runs the uninstaller the app registered, which does not remove the data folders or the registry keys above. This test installed from qianwen.com, so the winget route itself was not tried.

Account

Uninstalling does not delete your Alibaba account or its conversation history. Manage those in the service.

What Mole lists

For 千问 installed per-user from qianwen.com:

• The program folder goes with the app row. The Start Menu folder and the desktop shortcut are selected by default.
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\tongyi-desktop-updater, which holds only downloaded update installers, is selected by default.
• %APPDATA%\tongyi is listed but not selected, since it holds your sign-in state and settings. The caches inside it (Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, the Dawn shader caches and logs) are listed on their own and selected by default.
• %APPDATA%\Qianwen is listed but not selected.
• HKCU\Software\tongyi is listed but not selected, and is backed up to a .reg file before removal.
• The tongyi:// link registration the uninstaller leaves behind, and a row grouping Windows' own records of when you opened the program, are selected by default; the link is backed up to a .reg file first. The Tongyi startup entry is listed and selected the same way; in this test the uninstaller had already removed it.

What this test covered

Tested on 2026-09-29 with 千问 2.3.1 from the installer on qianwen.com, per-user scope, installed from an elevated session. The uninstaller is NSIS and ran silently. Every listed row was ticked and removed in this test. Not verified: signing in, and the winget package.